Melinda French Gates Calls Jeffrey Epstein 'Evil' in New Interview After Ex Bill Testified That Epstein Tried to Blackmail Him

Abigail AdamsSat, June 13, 2026 at 7:50 AM UTC

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Melinda French Gates; Bill GatesCredit: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty; Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty -

In a new interview, Melinda French Gates called Jeffrey Epstein "evil" and said speaking about him brought back painful memories

The interview was published just days after Melinda's ex-husband Bill Gates testified that Epstein tried to blackmail him using sensitive information about his personal life

Melinda previously said she has moved on from the "muck" of her past and is focused on forgiveness and healing

Melinda French Gates isn't holding back when it comes to her feelings about Jeffrey Epstein.

In a new interview with The Guardian, published on Saturday, June 13 — the same week that her ex-husband Bill Gates testified to Congress that Epstein attempted to blackmail him over his past infidelity — French Gates, 61, was notably tense when asked about how she felt meeting the sex offender and disgraced financier.

"My heart is racing," said the philanthropist. "Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?"

When asked if she was reliving the reaction she had during their one meeting, French Gates took a moment before responding, "Yes."

"Any woman who has ever been around somebody who is evil or had an experience and then if you're around somebody else who is evil. Just no, no," she continued. "We need to listen to our feelings about people."

On Wednesday, June 10, the Microsoft co-founder —who has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has repeatedly apologized for associating with Epstein — had a closed-door meeting with members of the House Oversight Committee as part of their ongoing Epstein investigation.

According to a copy of his planned remarks that Gates shared online, he testified that at some point Epstein had "become aware of sensitive information about my personal life, including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage."

"These affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family," the billionaire Microsoft co-founder continued.

Bill said Epstein "was unsuccessful" in his effort to blackmail him, but noted, "it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda."

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His connection with Epstein, which French Gates has publicly said played a part in the dissolution of their marriage, was thrust back into the spotlight earlier this year with the release of documents by the U.S. Department of Justice that included years-old emails from Epstein to himself claiming Gates got a sexually transmitted infection from "Russian girls" and then sought Epstein's help in order to hide it from French Gates.

Gates denied Epstein's "completely false" claims, but did later confirm that he had two affairs with Russian women while married to French Gates, while also crediting his ex for being "skeptical" of Epstein from the beginning.

Back in February, shortly after the release of the emails, French Gates — who recently made headlines of her own for donating $215 million to women's health — spoke broadly about Epstein's transgressions and about her own marriage during an episode of NPR's Wild Card podcast.

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"I think we're having a reckoning as a society, right? No girl, no girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him," she said. "So for me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up, right, because [it] brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage."

French Gates went on to say that "whatever questions remain there of what I don't — can't even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me."

Melinda French GatesCredit: Genna Martin/the Guardian

Asked about those comments during her interview with The Guardian, French Gates said she has always "spoken my truth about what I experienced" when it came to Epstein.

"He was an abhorrent human being, a horrid man, and so in these situations — this is a hard topic for me, you that — my heart goes out to the young girls," she said. "I just spoke my truth, which is that they deserve some peace, and they deserve some justice."

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